The situation of Catholics in China

Benedictine monk, Brother Peter, was arrested on November 7, 1955, because he was a Roman Catholic and refused to register with the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the Communist organization that oversees and regulates all religious goings-on. TORTURED! Catholic Monk Tortured in Chinese Communist Prison Brother Peter was sentenced in a so-called trial (without a lawyer or a jury) to 20 years in prison. He spent 26 years in prison and was tortured for many of those years.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PERSECUTION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN COMMUNIST CHINA

By Theresa Marie Moreau

Religious and personal freedom for the people of China began to disintegrate back in 1949 (after the end of the three-year Chinese Nationalist-Communist Civil War that followed in the wake of World War II), when the Communists (headed by Tse-Tung Mao) defeated the Kuomintang — the Chinese Nationalist Party (headed by Kai-Shek Chiang) that fled to Taiwan (historically known as Formosa ). On October 1, 1949, the Chairman stood in Tiananmen Square and announced the founding of the People’s Republic of China — with himself the head of the beast. In an attempt to break with the Holy See, the xenophobic Communists established, in 1949, the Three-Self Reform Movement, so-called for its aim to be Self-governing, Self-supporting and Self-propagating. Relations between the Vatican and China first froze then officially broke in 1951 after Mao kicked out Archbishop Antonio Riberi, papal nuncio.

But Mao discovered the “official church” wasn’t catching on. There was an underground Roman Catholic Church that was still alive, thriving.

For the next couple years, the Reds rounded up and expelled all foreign-born clergy and religious. Next, they began arresting and imprisoning Chinese priests and religious. Then the laity.

Make no mistake. This practice continues to this day. On July 15, 1957, the Three-Self Reform Movement was replaced by and integrated into the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

To be patriotic in China means to be revolutionary. To be faithful to the Pope, regarded as an imperialist power, is considered a counterrevolutionary act. Why does Beijing attempt to force its atheistic will upon Roman Catholics?

Speculation rests on the argument that the Communists want to have the underground Church clutched tightly in their five-starred fists before establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

According to “Document 26” issued by the Secretariat of Party Central on August 17, 1999, “The normalization of China-Vatican relations offers a beneficial opportunity to solve the problem of the underground Catholic forces. If we can use this opportunity...to win the majority of the underground Catholic forces over to our side, to convert them, then a key link in Party Central’s strategic plan will be realized...

The plan is: Positively struggle, treating each case differently, to convert the majority and to isolate the minority...making the leading authority in our country’s Catholic Church to be always in the hands of the patriotic forces. Distinguish the different circumstances of each underground bishop and priest, and deal with them accordingly.”

Long-term mission: Force the unofficial, illegal, underground Church into the official, legal, aboveground church.

Short-term mission: Behead the dioceses. Without shepherds, the sheep shall perish.

ENDNOTE: All Chinese names have been written in a manner to avoid confusion and to remain consistent with the English standard of writing proper names: given name first, family name last. In Chinese, names are traditionally written with family name first, given name last.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFaArkPxl_U

PERSECUTED! Catholic Church in Communist China PART 1

Benedictine Father Werner Papeians de Morchoven (right), Benedictine Father Eleutherius Winance (center) and Benedictine Brother Peter (Bang-Jiu Zhou) (left) lived in a Benedictine monastery in Szechwan, China, during the Communist takeover. Father Winance was arrested and expelled from China, Father Papeians de Morchoven was forced out of China and Brother Peter was arrested and served 25 years in a Communist prison, where he was tortured for many of those years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS7PEJcLSTM&feature=related

PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arTiElvcgbA

PART 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiFW6IgM8CI

ENSLAVED! (Part 1 of 7) — The Persecution of Guang-Zhong Gu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5IXK6iWtQ&feature=related
PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCGbifOdgUc
PART 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP-ysKLUkpM
PART 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ9kumR4TRA
PART 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s3s7OB2BTk
PART 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hybNFbjr2Q
PART 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MS1-gUkGrM

RARE! Funeral Pic of Underground Catholic Bishop Xue-Yan Fan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtiES0url0&feature=related

Heart-breaking!

China’s Underground Catholic Church 5809—LibertyUnderFire

China’s Underground Catholic Church members must meet secretly lest the government arrest them. There is a catholic Church led by the Communist Party (Chinese Patriotic catholic church) but most reject it. They want freedom of religion. How much do you value yours? To my Catholic friends. How do you feel about a philosophy of atheism taking over your church, appointing your religious leaders, and imprisoning those who practice non-atheistic Catholicism? Don’t forget that this is the country and philosophy which now owns a tenth of our national debt thanks to both parties.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_O_zGJGMRk&feature=related

China ignores Vatican protest, chooses church leaders

By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 7, 2010; 2:28 PM

BEIJING - China’s government-backed “patriotic” Catholic Church began a three-day meeting Tuesday to choose new leaders, defying objections from the Vatican that the conclave has no formal standing with the true Catholic Church and further straining the Chinese government’s increasingly fraught relationship with the Holy See.

Pope Benedict XVI has told Catholic bishops not to attend the gathering, called the Assembly of Chinese Catholic Representatives, being held in Beijing. “This kind of organization completely contradicts the Church’s hierarchy,” said Anthony Lam, researcher with the Holy Spirit Study Unit, which is part of the Diocese of Hong Kong. “The Holy See has already informed all individual bishops not to attend this kind of meeting.”

There were reports, however, that Chinese police have been dispatched to parishes searching for bishops and forcing them to attend. The Web site of the government’s religious affairs office said late Tuesday that the conference was attended by 341 representatives, including 64 bishops, 162 priests, 24 nuns and 91 other church members.

A friar at the Jing county cathedral, in Hebei province, described one dramatic scene Monday night when scores of Chinese police officers dragged away Bishop Feng Xinmao after a six-hour standoff, with more than 30 priests encircling a police car with the bishop inside.
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“Bishop Feng was kidnapped and forced to attend that meeting,” said the friar, who was interviewed by telephone and spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. After the bishop was allowed to attend the funeral of a priest who had died, the friar said police tried to take the bishop away but met a strong but peaceful protest from his congregation.

“There were so many priests, friars, nuns and church members,” the friar said. “The officials called for more cars and for more police backup. Some of the nuns and church members cried because they didn’t want the bishop to be taken away. In the end, the bishop had to go with them.

“The Communist Party planned this whole meeting, and they want all the bishops to attend so, in the end, they can take photos and use them in their propaganda to say we have religious freedom,” the friar said. “But most of the bishops didn’t want to go because, the Vatican doesn’t approve.”.....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120702673.html?hpid=topnews

this ties in with Chinese regime arrests Christians for Easter

Christians are being persecuted in China, in Burma, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Afghanistan etc. We must pray (at the very least) for our Christian brethern, whatever denomination they belong to.

“But despite the dictatorship’s best efforts, worshippers from the Protestant church showed up to celebrate on Easter Sunday anyway. Police, however, were waiting for them. Within minutes, more than 35 had been arrested.”

Yes, it certainly fits Cronos. Thank you. Perhaps, when they see it’s also happening to Protestants, they’ll absorb the information a little better.

Thanks for the ping.

we can only hope and pray